A term normally used to describe amateur enthusiasts who took an interest in railway locomotive performance and recorded train times, weights etc, from which they formed opinions of the merits of different designs of locomotive. They did not normally have access to official information regarding coal and water consumption, exact train weights, valve gear settings etc.

The ‘Precedents’ were the 6ft 6in counterparts of the 5ft 6in ‘Precursors’ and were introduced in December 1874. They had 140 psi Boilers and 7/8in frames, a cab, Webb’s closed safety valves and no brakes on the engine.

A series of 2-4-0’s built by F.W. Webb from 1874 with 5ft 6in driving wheels thought to be better suited to hill climbing on the Crewe-Carlisle line; where as the ‘Precedents’ although similar in many other aspects had 6ft 6in wheels. Precursor had the usual Webb features, plain chimney top, a cab, they also had open Ramsbottom safety Valves, horizontal smoke box door, hook-type front coupling and no brakes on the engine. They were all replaced by 2-4-2 5ft 6in tank engines from 1890.

A class of 130 very successful 4-4-0 express passenger engines built by George Whale from 1904. After the value of superheating was proved many of the class received superheater boilers with extended smoke boxes and their performance was then indistinguishable from the “George the Fifths”; they retained separate splashers over the driving wheels and so were different in appearance. They were the first of Whale’s larger engines and the last one was not scrapped until 1949.

Premium Apprentices paid about £200 to the company in return for a five-year apprenticeship, during which they were paid normal trade apprentice rates. They were not guaranteed a job at the end of their term, though many Crewe Premium Apprentices went on to head most of Britain’s railways at one time or another, and other important industrial concerns. About thirty new Premiums were admitted each year, so it was a select club, indeed the ‘Past and Present Crewe Association’ still meets to this day. Some of the better-known Crewe apprentices include Worsdell, Aspinall, Ivatt, Hoy, Hughes, Gresley and Rolls.

Incorporated 1831, but before completion was amalgamated in 1834 with the already-built Wigan Branch Railway as the North Union Railway. The 15 mile P&W section was opened in 1838 and now forms part of the West Coast main line.

A class of 4-6-0 locomotives built by Bowen Cooke from 1911 – the superheated version of the Whale “Experiment” class (as “George the Fifth” was of the “Precursor” class) and the main work-horse of LNWR express passenger services from its introduction. During the First World War, some were built by outside companies and not at Crewe.

Many industrial concerns whose products were carried by rail had wagons (and vans) built specifically for their use, turned out in their own livery, dedicated to their traffic and returned to the owner after unloading. The majority of these “private owner wagons” were open coal or mineral wagons, though others were more specialised, such as covered wagons salt and vans for sausages. During the Second World War all private owner wagons were declared to be “common user”.

Designed by John Ramsbottom and introduced in 1859, the first of the ‘7ft 6in Single’ class was No.184 Problem. This name came from a withdrawn Trevithick 2-4-0 goods engine and originally had a mathematical connotation, another of the class being Theorem. They incorporated all the usual Ramsbottom features: his design of chimney top, safety valves and screw reverser, horizontal smoke box door, no cab, no brakes on the engine and no top lamp socket. The class is also known by one of the famous members of the class ‘Lady of the Lake’ as it was awarded a bronze medal at the International Exhibition in 1862

A rod which is pulled from one end, to actuate something at its other end. For example, when attached to brake hangers and blocks, a pull on one end of the pull rod would transmit a force towards the front of an engine, where it would be attached to further brake hangers and thereby apply the brakes on all wheels at once.